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Quick Bites |
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Chicago Brewing Company By: The Lady of The Night Out Since we just kicked off football season, we're continuing our culinary quest to understand what football fans eat in their hometowns. Las Vegas is such a melting pot, we can stay in the Valley and still sample home town specialties from coast to coast. We started with the Big Apple, then motored to Motown. Today it's my hometown: Chicago! Two years ago Magoo's Gaming Group - the Loose Caboose folks - decided to open a brew pub. The corporate chef grew up on the North Shore, so Chicago became the theme. He insisted on authenticity - the extensive use of red brick reminds me of my first apartment off Rush Street. Authenticity includes "importing" local ingredients like Vienna hot dogs and Fontanini meats - the only sausages a card carrying Chicagoan would eat. Oh, the hot dog. I closed my eyes and was transported. This is the real deal. The Chicago Brewing Company serves a Vienna hot dog as fat as a banana. Spicy, racy, juicy - yum. The hot dog, served in a soft poppy seed bun, is buried under chopped raw onions, pickle relish and wagon wheels of fresh tomatoes. Hidden under the fixings is a sport pepper - this thing should be classified as a biological weapon. Wow. Is it hot! and the perfect partner for that Vienna hot dog. Also on the plate: wonderfully crisp wedge potatoes. Another truly Chicago dish is the deep dish pizza. Once again, this Las Vegas eatery has captured the essence of Chicago pizza: the star is the crust. And the sausage and pepperoni weren't too shabby, either. I could have sworn I was eating an Uno's pizza. I've always loved the drama of a searing hot iron skillet arriving at the table with the cheese bubbling. Sandwich lovers will recognize the Italian roast beef sandwich. It's an ethnic version of the classic French dip. Chicagoans like their Italian sandwiches on rolls so hard you could break a tooth. Here in Las Vegas, locals hated the traditional hoagie roll - they thought the bread was stale. So, to accommodate local tastes, the Chicago Brewing Company serves its Italian sandwiches on softer rolls. Locals actually have played a big role in determining the menu at the Chicago Brewing Company. General manager Craig Tribus says he cooked up some specials that locals like - ahi tuna or the buffalo mozzarella and roma tomato salad, for example - that ended up on the menu. So you don't have to hail from the Windy City to enjoy the food at the Chicago Brewing Company. And, yes, this is an ale house. The restaurant and bar areas snake around the mash kettles and fermenting tanks. The brew master makes a new ale every 10 days. Cigar smokers - head upstairs to the Cigar Lounge, furnished with enough leather to qualify for a Princeton eating club. The Chicago Brewing Company is located at 2201 South Fort Apache Road just off Sahara. The phone number is 702.254.3333. 
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